IMMOOC Week 5 Blog Post

How might we measure the impact of innovative practices in education?

If you are in the innovators mindset then according to George Couros, "true innovation only happens when a new structure is created, one that nurtures critical thinkers, supports risk takers, encourages ongoing transformations and that places a high value on creative and insightful learning and disseminate ideas for innovation." To me, innovation seems like an incredibly difficult and ambiguous concept to evaluate and assess, and innovation may mean different things to different people. At the state level, innovative practices may be judged for their success or failure based on an overall increase in test scores. At the local level, perhaps you can assess innovation based on how the school postively affects in local community, perhaps through some sort of fundraiser or educational outcome that benefits the community beyond the school. For an individual teacher, they may measure the impact of innovative practices based on the number of successfully completed assignments coupled with the feeling of overall morale in the classroom. I think the key to measuring the impact of innovative practices will be to measure several aspects of a child's education, from several perspectives. I think that the children should assess themselves, and the level of transformation and growth they felt they've experienced. I think the teachers should also assess themselves and assess from their perspective, the success of innovative practices. I also think assessments should be made at the administrative level, and even at the community level, i.e. assessments and questionaire's are sent to parent's guardians, etc. I also think that these assessments should happen several time throughout the year. The data can then be amalgamated and compared to/evaluated against the school or organizations mission/vision.